Mama

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MAMA (2013) starring Jessica Chaston, Nikolag Coster-Waldau, and Megan Charpentier might go down in history as having one of the best Movie Trailers I've ever seen. Somebody should definitely win an award for that masterpiece of editing. The full length movie however...it won't be remembered for much more than Jessica Chaston's first appearnce after her Oscar nominated performance in ZERO DARK THIRTY.

Opening with a botched murder-suicide, we find two preschool aged children left alone to somehow fend for themselves in a remote cabin. When hired trackers finally locate the girls five years later, the 'feral children' are brought back to live with their biological uncle and his unconventional girlfriend. Within days, we realize that whatever kept the children alive for all those years in the forest has somehow managed to follow them back to the city.

Granted, I watch more horror movies in a month than most do in a year and it does take a lot to scare me, however I still have to label this movie as a miss. MAMA had major potential, as anyone can attest from the trailer. The 'creep-factor' was high, the concept somewhat unique, it just never materialized into anything substantial. It's possible that the weak special effects in the last quarter of the movie are partially to blame for my meiocre rating.

This movie was based on a Spanish-language short story written by Andres Muschietti in 2008 of the same name. Directed by Andres Muschietti, 14A, 100 mins, Horror, Mystery, ** 3 stars out of 5.